ProjectWorld and World Congress for Business Analysts blog seeks to bring together all levels of project management and business analysis expertise, from diverse industries and perspectives, across business groups and information technology. Our goal is build successful collaboration and share content, best practices, techniques, and networking.

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Monday, December 22, 2014

We’ve published a lot of inspiring and thought-provoking
posts this year about project management, business analysis, leadership and
more, so we wanted to take a moment to look back on the most popular posts of
2014. Here are the topics our readers enjoyed the most this year:

Leadership
Lessons: Paul R. Williams: Paul R. Williams, Leader of Project
Management, PAi, talked to us about how PMOs add value to the organization.
Today, PMOs are a strategic imperative for the C-Suite to deliver projects
aligned with key strategic initiatives. Project Managers are in high demand
today; Williams will give us keen insight into recruiting, training and
retaining key program staff. To read the
full post, click
here.

Here
Comes The Boom! An NFL Champion Illustrates Key Business Analysis Skills:
As business analysis practitioners, we certainly appreciate the analytical
style of Richard Sherman and his LOB brothers. In addition to
conducting a sort of pre-game analysis, we too must be able to conduct
game-time analysis and make adjustments, where needed. For example,
it is important for practitioners to understand stakeholders early on. Whether
by talking to the actual stakeholder, consulting with other practitioners who
have worked with them, or some other method, we need to understand certain
things about our stakeholders, including (but not limited to) the
stakeholder's view of the problem or opportunity at hand, expectations
of a solution, and anticipated level of involvement with the
initiative. To read the full post, click
here.

Leadership
Lessons to Live By: In virtually every industry that exists today,
leaders must set aside more time to reflect and assess their thinking,
capabilities, and strategies. It is crucial that they evaluate how their
leadership brand is being perceived by others and whether or not it requires a
tune-up. We highlighted some key leadership lessons that you should live
by. To read the full post, click
here.

The
5 Best Free Project Management Tools: There are effective free project
management tools out there - some are more robust than others, but all of them
provide ways to collaborate and complete projects quicker. We found five of the
best free project management tools that may make your job easier. To read the full post, click
here.

Big
Data and Project Management: Today, organizations are taking strategic
risks to add business value through innovative big data initiatives. Big data
is a blanket term for any collection of data sets so large and complex that it
becomes difficult to process using available data management tools
or conventional data processing applications. Tom Davenport, author of
“Big Data at Work” has worked with many companies and he’s uncovered key
principles around five key areas to be successful at big data projects. To read the full post, click
here.

Agile
State of Mind: Are you wondering how to choose which project management
method to deliver a successful project? Organizations today have to be more
competitive in the marketplace so choosing the best practices and methods for
your organization and projects is important. Agile is a set of values and
principles, not a pre-defined process with obvious areas of limitation.
Waterfall is a model based on development method that is linear and sequential.
We put together the top four criteria to choose the best fit of methodologies
at the right time for the right customer. To read the full post, click here.

Women
in Leadership: Jo Miller: Jo Miller, CEO Women’s Leadership Coaching
Inc. sat down with us to talk about women in leadership. Today, women make up
over 50 percent of the workforce, are entrepreneurs, hold key leadership
positions and serve on board of directors. Miller will give us her insight into
the challenges women face in the workplace, how to overcome these obstacles and
become a more empowered leader. To read
the full post, click
here.

Leadership
Lessons: Dr. Alicia Aitken: Dr.
Alicia Aitken, managing director Asia Pacific, Human Systems International
(HSI), sat with us to talk about the ins and outs of leadership in today’s
competitive business landscape. According to Aitken, being authentic makes
great leader stand out in a crows these days. Today’s world is full of
leadership models, business school taught methods and processes. Leaders stand
out by being authentic and true to who they are and who they are leading. To read the full post, click
here.

Monday, December 15, 2014

"Companies with high leadership qualities were six
times more likely to be among the top 20 financial performers of all
organizations."

Want to do your part to launch your organization into the top 20?

We are excited to announce that NACCM and the Windsor Leadership Group have
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train over 7,000 leaders at Walt Disney World!) and secure your organization's
spot at the top.

Facilitator William Greenwald, Founder & Chief
Neuroleaderologist, Windsor Leadership Group will lead attendees through
self-exploration, Disney-based leadership and service case studies, hands-on
learning exercises and group experiences in the Disney theme parks. This
experiential journey will lead to personal discovery, authentic leadership
development and the ability to design and sustain high performing leadership
teams and service cultures.

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Studios and Epcot Theme Parks

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

These days, project management can be a touchy subject, especially
when it comes to project failures. But, knowledge, strategy and precautionary
tactics can help project managers avoid serious project management pitfalls.

"If you're a tried and true waterfall type of project
management shop and you go in and change to an agile shop, that's a big change…
in principles and also asking a lot of people to partake in that change. Some
folks are resistant to it, especially if there's not an immediate payoff. The
immediate impact will actually be less effectiveness, maybe less efficiency, but
you have to hold true to the fact that long term, it's going to pay off." -
Randy McGraw, SVP of technology and operational services at service provider
West IP Communications

Have a project leader
to provide feedback.

"You may know the technology and service inside and
out--but it is still important to have someone on your side who can actively
participate and provide insight and things of nature change management." -
McGraw

Don’t let deadlines
run your project.

"Let's focus on the right solution [first] and then
figure out how to get it done in the time frame we have to. Whether we have to
[divide it], phase it, or defer some work. Taking that approach of what's the
right end game and making sure you set your project and your approach up to get
you there ultimately is most important…Help people from falling into those
pitfalls of time-driven decision making." - Kevin Riley, CTO of Sonus
Networks

Approach project
management one step at a time.

"When you do these projects, they can be very complex
[and] you can get caught up in looking at the full body of work and all the
details, and it becomes hard to wrap your head around the plan.” - Riley

Stay detail-oriented and
streamlined.

"Make sure you minimize details, but also make sure
your plans around those [finite number of] details are perfect." - Bill Scudder, CIO of Sonus Networks

Avoid bureaucracy.

"I try not to have a lot of bureaucracy around project
management because I think that can actually slow things down." - Scudder

Provide feedback
throughout the process.

"We do start with a process where we have an exec
review board for large project. We call it the IPAC. IT project approval
board. They come and present the problems they're trying to solve, the
resources they need, etc. If they're stuck, we also do a traffic-light
review… so we have a funnel of large projects that go through that.” - Scudder

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

As a thank you for being a member of our ProjectWorld &
The World Congress for Business Analysts LinkedIn group, we’d like to invite
you to join us for the following complimentary presentations in our PW&WCBA
webinar series:

Building Metrics that Tell the Complete Story – Going
Beyond Earned Value Management

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

1:00 PM - 2:00 PM EST

Join Dwayne
P. Myers, I&DS Rotorcraft Project Manager, Boeing, in a presentation
that takes a deep dive into Earned Value Management. He’ll reveal best
practices and lessons learned in understanding and explaining the numbers, as
well as where variances meet the stakeholders.

Join Silvanus David, Programme Manager – IT Infrastructure
Projects, in a presentation about how cyber security is a shared responsibility, and each of us has a
role to play. Emerging cyber threats require the engagement of the entire
society - from government and law enforcement to the private sector and most
importantly, members of the public. Today in cyberspace, the nation faces a
myriad of threats from criminals, including individual hackers and organized
criminal groups, as well as technologically advanced nation-states.
Government, non-governmental and private sector entities, as well as
individuals, families and communities must collaborate on ways to effectively
reduce risk.

Join Wayne Kremling, Senior Project Manager, Everett
Program Planning & Control, Boeing, in a presentation about how capturing
and leveraging lessons learned should be a strategic goal of all
enterprises. By putting action to this strategy organizations can
avoid repeating mistakes and take advantage of opportunities. Many
projects or organizations conduct lessons learned meetings at the end of a
project. The problem they run into is that the value of the lesson
is not leveraged. A change in processes or tools is needed as an
outcome of these reviews so that the value of the lessons can be realized.

Join Robin F. Goldsmith, JD in a presentation about how
project managers often get blamed for failure of projects that no project
manager could save. Frankly, many projects are destined to fail from
the beginning. Managing such projects is a disheartening effort to minimize
failure rather than an uplifting quest to success. The problem stems
inevitably from widely-accepted but mistaken project and requirements
models. In this eye-opening presentation, Robin Goldsmith shows how
appropriate business analysis is essential for initiating projects that can
succeed.

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

“Great works and great folly may be indistinguishable at the outset.” That is one of the quotes from Dr. Adam Steltzner that has stuck with me from Project World 2014. He was talking about coming up with a radical idea for a Mars rover landing using the "sky crane" and his team was thinking outside the box to come up with a solution with tight tolerances and no room for failure.

I was thinking about the many things I had learned while attending the 3 day event and trying to find ways to change my approach to teaming. I belong to an organization that is dependent on our partners to help deliver to the customer. Sometimes our projects fall flat because we didn’t build the essential
relationships that would have led each of our teams to cooperate and succeed in delivering to the
customer.

Dr. Steltzner used his example of taking people from different locations that had a competitive
relationship and changed that into one of cooperation. He had 7000 people from 36 countries over
a span of 10 years to meet their business goals. They couldn’t have succeeded without building
relationships. Certainly, this required a lot of effort. They would fly to different locations to meet face
to face if that was an option instead of having a virtual meeting. They would have to be willing to have their ideas figuratively torn to pieces because ideas win, not people.

The corporation exists in the human capital. Keeping that in mind I will be finding ways to appreciate the people that I partner with so we can begin growing our pie instead of fighting over the pieces.

Sunday, October 5, 2014

Thinking back on The Nitty Gritty of Agile Advanced PM Training. This was presented by Nanette Brown on behalf of EBG Consulting. She is a product developer with over 24 years of industry experience.

We were encouraged to get up and interact early on about how experienced we were with Agile. Implementing Agile is based on 2 factors: Do Agile and Be Agile. It’s like yin and yang, two parts of a greater whole.

Agile is about bringing value to customers through developing the right software that meet their needs. What you want to avoid is having a process be enshrined or ossified because that is the opposite about what Agile is about.

A group of us at the table had a chance to share some of our experience in our business and the challenges that we have. We heard from some Boeing representatives and Johnson & Johnson. We all experience changing requirements at the last moment and the utilization of Agile can help with these sudden changes.

Our focus during the presentation was on Scrum and XP Values

I had learned a lot of useful tips that I will be bringing back to my team.

Monday, September 29, 2014

Being a relative newbie to the world of project management I thought that I can get a better understanding of the challenges and skills that come with managing a project successfully by asking my trusty colleague Lisa. Lisa has taken the lead in many of our team’s projects over the years. Under her direction we have been successful so who better to ask. One topic that I was interested in was what she thought the biggest challenge was in managing a project. She said that, “My biggest challenge is managing the project and not managing the work---trusting team members to carry out their tasks as expected.” This challenge rang true with me because I have performed the role of employee involvement team facilitator before and that challenge is identical. You want to manage the project (or process) and not the work. Leave that step to the team members. Perhaps a helpful mantra? Nevermind, just keep your hands off the work.

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

ProjectWorld 2014 officially launched on Monday, September 22, tackling
some of the biggest issues for attendees.The topics trending at the conference are Agile, Communities of
project, multiple projects, leadership, business analysis and more.The speakers were dolling out “nuggets” of
wisdom and sage advice that attendees could take back to their organizations
and put to use right away.

Many attendees who signed up for the special field trip to
Starbucks were in for a big treat to learn insights on project management best
practices.Hope to interview a few
attendees to share some insights.

Tuesday morning, will kickoff with opening remarks from William Greenwald on Leadership and following keynote speakers, JoMiller and Meta S. Brown share insights on Women’s Leadership and Big
Data.Also, another special field trip
to Boeing will occur later today for those attendees who signed up.

Attendees can follow the twitter steam #PW14 to catch up on
the latest tweets for the event. Stay
tuned for more insights as I’ll share some of the powerful messages coming out
of this conference to help attendees tackle their biggest organizational issues.

Thursday, September 18, 2014

I recently interviewed Mary Ann Bender of Allstate and Betsy
Ballentine – Project Manager at Russell Martin & Associates, to talk about
the ins and outs of leadership in today’s competitive business landscape. Both
women are speaking at next week’s ProjectWorld & World Congress for Business
Analysts conference - the premiere conference brand that delivers executive
level program quality with an enhanced focus on collaboration between project management
and business analysis disciplines.

Here’s what Mary Ann and Betsy had to say:

IIR: What is the
biggest challenge facing project leaders today? How can they be overcome?

Bender: Budget
continues to be a challenge in some cases; however, based on my experience the
biggest challenge is the fear of availability issues or business impact due to
the project or changes to the environment.

So, have a good change management process in place, clear and
customized communication per business area, do a presentation of success
measurements to officers and directors helping them understand how the project
is helping the company and the businesses and if the project has cost savings,
those must be presented too. Divide the metrics and reports per business
unit and make it as a healthy competition between them.

Ballentine: Multi-tasking
is the biggest challenge. Constantly changing focus means that project
managers are never getting any velocity on their projects. New
highly-matrixed, job-sharing times demand leaner, more resilient tools. Get REAL!

Mary Ann and Betsy
will be speaking at PW&WCBA in Seattle,
WA taking place September 22-24th. The 2014 program is designed with courses
for all training levels, a robust agenda, and most importantly tangible lessons
which you can begin implementing the day you return to your office, making you
even more valuable to your organization. PW&WCBA offers attendees 36
PDU/CDUs - that's more than half of the required credits necessary to maintain
your certification in just one place.

Today, ProjectWorld & World Congress for Business
Analysts is the premier conference for advancing collaboration through
practice. This year, PW&WCBA has not only changed locations but also
drastically changed how the program is delivered- more than ever focused on
practicality and tangibility, through visionary speakers, and focus areas that
matter to you and your role and help accelerate future success. At PW&WCBA, you will have the opportunity
to join industry thought leaders as they re-examine how to identify
opportunities and track their success, understanding what it means to be an
effective leader in a virtual and multicultural world, and explore the future
role of project managers and business analysts with the corporation.

Greenwald whole-heartedly believes in Gandhi's quote, "Be
the Change that You Want to See.” According to him, too many leaders worry
about uncontrollables or trying to change others such as peers, bosses, and
spouses.

“Great leaders lead themselves before others...hence, by
simply taking responsibility for your own behavior and being an exemplary role
model in your corporation, community, and family, you will, by default, STAND
OUT.”

Greenwald recommends that all new leaders start every
conversation (at home and at work) with: "How can I serve you today?” This
will begin to build a strong foundation of Servant Leadership that will ably
guide decades of success as a great leader.

If you’d like to hear
more from William, don’t’ miss his sessions, “Creating Magic: Leadership and
Service Excellence” on Monday, September 22nd at 10:45 am and “Story to Stage:
The Art Behind the Science of Presentation Excellence” on Wednesday, September
24th at 2:00 pm. ProjectWorld & World Congress for Business Analysts 2014 is
taking place this September 22-September 24, 2014 in Seattle, Washington. For
more information and to register, click here: http://bit.ly/1wf3eOV

Monday, September 8, 2014

In less than one month, hundreds of project management and
business analysis executives will gather in Seattle to tackle some of their
most pressing challenges from the project trenches at ProjectWorld & World Congress for Business
Analysts. Will you be joining us?

PW&WCBA provides a 3-day experience designed for all training levels,
with a robust agenda and tangible lessons that can be implemented when you
return to the office.

Full Agenda Addressing Project Pain Points :
Designed to meet the needs of YOUR industry, including a new Project Scheduling
Lab, a focus on Leading High Performance Teams and Becoming a Person of
Influence.

In-Depth Workshops: This year there's even more
workshop sessions to get hands on with topics, including Agile PM Training,
Requirements Management Best Practices, Cyber Security, Emotional Intelligence
and more.

40+ Speakers sharing best practices and lessons
learned from deep in the project trenches. Find out what works (and what
doesn't!) from the best in the industry. You'll hear from Allstate, Bank of
Montreal, Erie Insurance, IIBA, Kindred Healthcare, Microsoft, Quest Diagnostics,
Starbucks & more.

A Look into the Future of Project Management
& Business Analysis: PW&WCBA will prepare your team not only for the
changes taking place in project management and business analysis, but also
what's coming. The IIBA's Kevin Brennan and Clark County NV's Ricki Henry will
share What the Future of Business Analysis will look like, while Kathleen B.
Hass explores what the New Project Leadership Model looks like.

36 PDUs/CDUs to maintain your certification:
that's more than half of the credits needed in just THREE days!

Unparalleled Networking: PW&WCBA Connect
allows you to see who's attending the event and begin networking before you
arrive in Seattle. Plus, we've added a networking reception and the opportunity
to sign up for group dinners to continue the conversation after the conference
day ends.

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Business Analysts are in high demand today and having the right skill sets may set you apart from other candidates vying for the same jobs. Whether you are a seasoned or new business analyst you will need basic and advanced skill sets to advance in your career.

Considering business analysis as a career? Read more detail on what the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) recommends regarding the transferable skills necessary to be successful.

Business analysis can be a very rewarding career and you can get more information at the website and by joining the International Institute of Business Analysis. Joining as a member provides you with access to A Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (the BABOK Guide) and the underlying business analysis competencies lists.

ProjectWorld & World Congress for Business Analysts 2014, is taking place in Seattle, Washington September 22-24th at the W Hotel. The 2014 program is designed with courses for all training levels, a robust agenda, and most importantly tangible lessons which you can begin implementing the day you return to your office, making you even more valuable to your organization. PW&WCBA offers attendees 36 PDU/CDUs - that's more than half of the required credits necessary to maintain your certification in just one place.

Thursday, August 28, 2014

I recently interviewed Benjamin Locwin of lonza Biopharmaceuticals
to talk about the ins and outs of leadership in today’s competitive business
landscape. Locwin is speaker at the upcoming ProjectWorld & World Congress for Business
Analysts 2014 conference in Seattle taking place next month. He will be presenting
a session entitled, “Using Evidence-Based Practice for High-Impact Messaging.”

At PW&WCBA, you will have the opportunity to join
industry thought leaders as they re-examine how to identify opportunities and
track their success, understanding what it means to be an effective leader in a
virtual and multicultural world, and explore the future role of project managers and business analysts with
the corporation.

Check out what Locwin had to say:

IIR: How do you,
as a leader, stand out in a crowd in this competitive business world?

Locwin: For this,
leadership branding is critically important; I have my own leadership brand,
and this constancy of message carries through all of the work I do with my
teams.

IIR: What are
characteristics of a GREAT leader?

Locwin: Listening,
being empathic, and not being afraid to make the big decisions. To paraphrase
Peter Drucker, an expert in a field has seen enough to be able to quickly
appraise a situation and know what’s important to focus on.

IIR: How does a
successful leader communicate?

Locwin: One word:
Often. If a leader isn’t developing a strategy and communicating a vision, and
then communicating frequent progress checks, no one knows what the status is of
their achievement work.

IIR: What are the
most important decisions you make as a leader of your organization or team?

Locwin: As an
organization gets larger there can be a tendency for the “institution” to
dampen the “inspiration.” How do you keep this from happening? By disentangling
the chaos of the entire big picture and making the smaller teams still feel
like critical cogs in the whole machine; It’s really a sense of scale in this
case that demotivates. By making the goals and achievements real, tangibility
can be felt.

IIR: How do you
encourage creative thinking within your team or organization?

Locwin: Much of
this is derived from Edward de Bono; Lateral thinking requires tools and
techniques to encourage it often. I have developed these systems so that they
frequently call upon the experts to continuously refine their work in new,
bold, and creative ways.

IIR: How do you
help a new employee understand the culture of your organization?

Locwin: Culture
can only be felt or measured on a very broad scale; it’s how the business
functions as a whole and in the context of its own unique ‘corporate memory.’
You can’t ‘train’ a new employee on the culture of the organization, he or she
learns by interacting within it.

IIR: What is one
characteristic that you believe every leader should possess?

Locwin: An
understanding of behavioral psychology and fluency with statistical variation.

IIR: What is the
biggest challenge facing leaders today?

Locwin: Diversity
in the workplace with respect to different fluencies with technology and media.
Being part of the ‘next-five-minutes’ forecasting model (which is to say that
long-term forecasting as had been done for many decades in business is no
longer relevant with such short time horizons now).

IIR: What is the
one behavior that you have seen derail more leaders’ careers?

Locwin: Believing
that natural variation doesn’t occur.

IIR: What advice
would you give someone going into a leadership position for the first time?

Locwin: Stop.
Look. And listen. Don’t go out and make decisions until you’ve taken stock on
how the status quo is running; You’d be more likely to make things worse than
better.

IIR: What are you
doing to ensure you continue to grow and develop as a leader?

Locwin: Continuous
learning. It’s all about adaptability.

Locwin will be speaking at ProjectWorld & World
Congress for Business Analysts 2014, taking place in Seattle, Washington
September 22-24th at the W Hotel. The 2014 program is designed with courses for
all training levels, a robust agenda, and most importantly tangible lessons
which you can begin implementing the day you return to your office, making you
even more valuable to your organization. To
learn more or register for the event, click here: http://bit.ly/1p8VOGT

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

I recently interviewed Silvanus David, SITA SOUTH AFRICA, to
talk about the ins and outs of leadership in today’s competitive business
landscape. David is a keynote speaker at the upcoming ProjectWorld & World Congress for Business
Analysts 2014 conference in Seattle taking place next month. He will
be presenting a session entitled, “Cyber Security.”

Check out what David had to say:

IIR: How do you,
as a leader, stand out in a crowd in this competitive business world?

David: I am a
project management subject matter expert. I add value to the scientific
knowledge base. I have something to offer that will make this world a better
place than I have found it.

IIR: What are
characteristics of a GREAT leader?

David: Humility
is key. Focus as well – knowing how to keep the team focused and what is
important.

IIR: How does a
successful leader communicate?

David: Successful
leaders communicate honestly. Good and bad news must be communicated.

IIR: Can you name
a person who has had a tremendous impact on you as a leader? Maybe someone who
has been a mentor to you? Why and how did this person impact your life?

David: My CEO, Mr.
Freeman Numvalo. He arrived at the organization when it was at its lowest from
an employee satisfaction perspective. His engagement with staff and his ability
for getting people to start believing in themselves was “messiah” like. His
focus on the vision and objective of the organization was always core and he
was “outcome” and “impact” driven.

IIR: What are the
most important decisions you make as a leader of your organization or team?

David: Strategic
direction of the team. Ensuring that the outcomes of Government are adhered to
and supported.

IIR: As an
organization gets larger there can be a tendency for the “institution” to
dampen the “inspiration.” How do you keep this from happening?

David: Whatever
we do has an impact on the service delivery for the citizenry of the nation. My
team is inspired by knowing that the value they add makes the nation a better
place for all.

IIR: How do you
encourage creative thinking within your team or organization?

David: All for
people to make mistakes within a controlled environment. Reward employees whose
ideas thru creative thinking has added value to the organization.

IIR: Which is
most important to your organization or team? (mission, core values or vision?)
How do you communicate the “core values” to your team?

David: Vision,
Mission and core values are all important. The best way to communicate “core
values” is by visibly demonstrating it.

IIR: How do you
help a new employee understand the culture of your organization?

David: The best
way to help a new employee is to have a comprehensive induction program for the
new employee. Also, the new employees should be assigned to a mentor for a
period of time.

IIR: What is one
characteristic that you believe every leader should possess?

David: Every
leader must know the end-game. And he must be able to change direction
mid-flight.

IIR: What is the
biggest challenge facing leaders today?

David: Staying
relevant to customer needs.

IIR: What is the
one behavior or trait that you have seen derail more leaders’ careers?

David: Arrogance
and the false belief that it is all about themselves.

IIR: Can you
explain the impact that social media has made on you as a leader?

David: It depends
on what interests you and what you are exposed to. Social medial can be very
beneficial.

IIR: What advice
would you give someone going into a leadership position for the first time?

David: It’s not
about you.

IIR: What are you
doing to ensure you continue to grow and develop as a leader?

David: Think hard
about business and people.

David will be speaking at ProjectWorld
& World Congress for Business Analysts 2014, taking place in Seattle,
Washington September 22-24th at the W Hotel. The 2014 program is designed with
courses for all training levels, a robust agenda, and most importantly tangible
lessons which you can begin implementing the day you return to your office,
making you even more valuable to your organization. PW&WCBA offers
attendees 36 PDU/CDUs - that's more than half of the required credits necessary
to maintain your certification in just one place.

Thursday, August 21, 2014

As Project Managers and Business Analysts we are all exposed to different cultures working in various industries. ProjectWorld will be hosted in Seattle, Washington this year on the West Coast and many attendees will have the unique pleasure to experience an offsite learning session at Starbucks Corporate Headquarters. Attendees will gain insight into the unique Starbucks experience and culture.

Starbuck’s was originally about the coffee beans; they didn’t make coffee. Howard Schultz had a dream, bought Starbucks and eventually realized his dream. Several years ago Howard Schultz reached a turning point with Starbucks and in his book ”Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life Without Losing its Soul” he revisits how he turned Starbucks into an experience that would first be cultivated by his leaders (his managers) and then through his employees by (as he put it) “as managers we would put our feet in the shoes of our people.”

Starbucks has a corporate culture that encourages its leaders to create a unique culture for employees and for the employees to create a unique and personal experience for its customers.

Starbucks has established five principles that employees follow and use in their daily lives at the company: The five core business principles are:

It will be interesting to see how this translates to managing projects at Starbucks. If you have signed up for the tour you’ll be one of the lucky attendees to gain insight into how these practices are put into action in how they manage and deliver their projects.

Jan Asbjorsen, Program Manager, Law & Corporate Affairs, Starbucks Coffee Company will lead attendees on A Behind this Scenes Look at the Starbucks Corporate Headquarters. In addition to a private tour of the Starbucks world headquarters, attendees will hear from a cross-departmental panel of project managers (including store development, IT, retail operations, law and more), as well as walk away with a checklist of things to consider when determining how to size your projects, tools, organizations, success factors, etc.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

I recently interviewed Brian Duffy of The Boeing Company to
talk about the ins and outs of leadership in today’s competitive business
landscape. Duffy is a speaker at the upcoming ProjectWorld & World Congress for Business
Analysts 2014 conference in Seattle. He will be presenting a workshop
alongside Joe Reid entitled, “Requirements Management Best Practices at the
Boeing Company.”

Check out what Duffy had
to say:

IIR: Can you name
a person who has had a tremendous impact on you as a leader? Why and how did
this person impact your life?

Duffy: The best
leader I worked for rallied the organization around a vision, worked with the
leadership team to collaboratively develop a strategic plan to move the
organization toward the vision, and used project management principles to turn
the strategic plans into project plans. That’s when I made a career change
to move into a project manager role.

IIR: How do you
help a new employee understand the culture of your organization?

Duffy: As a
project office we have developed a team operating plans that describe our
products and services and our intended use of management best practices to run
the organization. It helps orient new employees that we have a strong
emphasis on creating value for the company. We consistently ask our
internal customers how specifically our products and services are helping them
achieve bottom-line business results.

IIR: What is the
biggest challenge facing leaders today?

Duffy: I think
leaders today need to recognize that the up and coming work force is entering
the workplace better equipped to be more productive due to their technological savvy
and with an ability to come up with wildly creative solutions to
problems. The organizations that leverage that most effectively will
rapidly see improvement in business results.

Duffy will be
speaking at ProjectWorld & World
Congress for Business Analysts, taking place in Seattle, Washington
September 22-24th at the W Hotel. The 2014 program is designed with courses for
all training levels, a robust agenda, and most importantly tangible lessons
which you can begin implementing the day you return to your office, making you
even more valuable to your organization. PW&WCBA offers attendees 36
PDU/CDUs - that's more than half of the required credits necessary to maintain
your certification in just one place.

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

FACT: 75% of the brain's neuroreceptors are devoted to
processing visual information. That's 60x more than are devoted to hearing!

Project Managers and Business Analysts alike are accountable for understanding,
and helping others understand, all aspects of a project. When planning,
designing and communicating a project, sometimes words alone aren't able to
provide a clear picture - that's where visual thinking and reporting tools can
help.

Next month, at ProjectWorld & World
Congress for Business Analysts, Paul R. Williams, former Vice President,
Operations & Technology PMO Lead, Associated Bank, NA will share how you
can leverage visual thinking in project management. He'll provide you with the
tools needed for creative problem solving, task planning and reporting
project-based metrics and results.

PW&WCBA

September 22-24, 2014

W Hotel

Seattle, Washington

In addition to Paul's presentation, check out these featured sessions:

· Making
Innovation Work: New Directions Behavioral Health

· Story
to Stage: The Art Behind the Science of Presentation Excellence: Windsor
Leadership Group

· How
to Best Take Advantage of Cloud Computing, Microsoft

· If
It's Creativity You Want, Then Creativity You Will Get! Expert Facilitation
that Fosters Creativity: Kathleen Hass & Associates

IIR: How do you,
as a leader, stand out in a crowd in this competitive business world?

Aitken: Being
authentic. Today’s world is full of leadership models, business school taught
methods and processes. Leaders stand out by being authentic and true to who
they are and who they are leading.

IIR: What are
characteristics of a GREAT leader?

Aitken: For me,
great leaders are those that are not only visionary but are able to bring
people on the journey with them to share and understand the vision and inspire
them to want to work towards a better future state. Great leaders take the time
to know themselves as well as their team and work to leverage each team
members’ strengths on the journey. Great leaders lead with authenticity
and courage.

IIR: How does a successful
leader communicate?

Aitken: Often and
in many different ways. People hear and understand in different ways, it’s
important for leaders to work hard to find and use all the different
communication techniques, one-on-one, group messages, email, notice boards, texting
and most importantly, listening.

IIR: Can you name
a person who has had a tremendous impact on you as a leader? Maybe someone who
has been a mentor to you? Why and how did this person impact your life?

Aitken: Dr. Lynn
Crawford has been the most influential leader in my life. She has taught me not
only about project management but how to succeed in life by following your
passions, having the courage to live by your values no matter what, constantly
reflecting on your own practice to ensure you’re always improving, to open
doors for good people along the way and to have the courage to walk through
doors opened by others for you and the good grace to thank you as you step
through.

IIR: What are the
most important decisions you make as a leader of your organization or team?

Aitken: Who joins
the team.

IIR: As an
organization gets larger there can be a tendency for the “institution” to
dampen the “inspiration.” How do you keep this from happening?

Aitken: Encourage
all team members to voice ideas and try new things and have the self-control
when some of them inevitably fail not to get angry but talk through how we can
learn from the lesson.

IIR: How do you
encourage creative thinking within your team or organization?

Aitken: I try to
hire people with diverse backgrounds and diverse education paths so that my
teams are mixtures of different ways of thinking. The mix of people generates
ideas that spring from different origins which fosters creativity simply by
coming at problems from different perspectives.

IIR: Which is
most important to your organization or team? (mission, core values or vision?)
How do you communicate the “core values” to your team?

Aitken: Core
values are most important as they are the stable. The core values underpin the
delivery of changing missions and visions over time. The core values are
communicated both implicitly (I model them) and explicitly (I talk openly about
what the core values are, how they manifest in behaviors and why we have them).

IIR: How do you
help a new employee understand the culture of your organization?

Aitken: I talk to
them. We are small enough that I can talk to everyone one-on-one. As we grow
this will become less one-on-one and more through group sessions.

IIR: What is one
characteristic that you believe every leader should possess?

Aitken: Self awareness.

IIR: What is the
biggest challenge facing leaders today?

Aitken: I’m not
sure there are challenges that relate to today in particular. Leadership is a
base human need. It has been around for millennia and will continue into the
future.

IIR: What is the
one behavior that you have seen derail more leaders’ careers?

Aitken: Hubris.

IIR: Can you
explain the impact that social media has made on you as a leader?

Aitken: It has
given me one more mode of communicating and bonding with my team. It has
slipped into the mix along with everything else we do.

IIR: What advice
would you give someone going into a leadership position for the first time?

Aitken: Asking
questions shows you care not ignorance – listening is one of the best skills
you can employ with team members, clients and co-workers.

IIR: What are you
doing to ensure you continue to grow and develop as a leader?

Aitken: I am
constantly looking for people I think are good at things I am yet to learn and
try to model from their example

Aitken will be speaking at ProjectWorld
& World Congress for Business Analysts 2014, taking place in Seattle,
Washington September 22-24th at the W Hotel. The 2014 program is designed with
courses for all training levels, a robust agenda, and most importantly tangible
lessons which you can begin implementing the day you return to your office,
making you even more valuable to your organization. PW&WCBA offers
attendees 36 PDU/CDUs - that's more than half of the required credits necessary
to maintain your certification in just one place.

I recently interviewed Jo Miller, CEO Women’s Leadership Coaching Inc. to talk about women in leadership. Today, women make up over 50% of the workforce, are entrepreneurs, hold key leadership positions and serve on board of directors. Miller will give us her insight into the challenges women face in the workplace, how to overcome these obstacles and become a more empowered leader.

IIR: Jo, exciting to have you at ProjectWorld! How would you define a person of influence in today’s organization?

Jo: An influencer is someone who has a goal or a vision that they’d like to achieve that is bigger than they can accomplish alone — meaning they must engage, motivate and inspire others to collaborate and help out in order for that goal to be achieved. To be an influencer you don’t need a leadership job title or a team who report to you, in fact, I would volunteer that no-one gets promoted into leadership without first showing that they can positively influence others.

IIR: You’ve interviewed women worldwide; what do these up and coming leaders tell you are their top three leadership challenges in business?

Jo: By far the biggest frustration that emerging leaders tell me they deal with is office politics. Most leadership books won’t tell you this, but it is one of the biggest career-killers if you don’t find a positively way to navigate it. Ignoring it is not an option, because you’ll get passed over for career opportunities if you don’t “play the game.”

Next, for women especially, making their value visible and not being the best kept secret in the organization. Women have a tendency to work hard, deliver outstanding work, then go on to the next task without pausing to make sure their work was visible to higher-ups.

And finally, in a world where promotions are increasingly rare and everyone needs to collaborate cross-functionally to get stuff done, I would say that influencing without authority is a big challenge many up and coming leaders need to figure out.

IIR: What was the impetus for you to start your coaching business and focus specifically on women leaders?

Jo: Coming from the corporate world, where I had tried unsuccessfully to find a roadmap or guide on how to advance up the corporate ladder, I knew there was a need. I also met too many women with leadership potential that outshone their current positions, and saw the talent pool that was not being tapped. I realized that companies would be better off if they had a way to connect with that untapped potential, so I started creating coaching programs and workshops that gave women a roadmap to break into management and leadership positions.

IIR: Tell us about your new book “She’s Got Clout; How to Become a Rising Woman of Influence. How can we get a copy of your book?

Jo: I’m still working on it! The book will focus on the topics I teach in my one-day Poised for Leadership workshop. It’s a set of core competencies for employees who want to break out and establish themselves as emerging leaders in their organizations. Topics include how to gain visibility and reward for your accomplishments, navigate organizational politics with savvy, and build a reputation as a leader or expert.

IIR: Project Managers are making the shift to become project leaders leading global teams. What are your top three leadership tips for these project leaders?

Jo: 1. Don’t wait for positional authority: look for opportunities to act, identify leadership gaps, and take the lead.

2. If you want to increase your influence, start by building a network of relationships with people that support you in your career and leadership goals. When people know you and trust you, you don’t need to cajole or persuade them to help you out: they are happy to collaborate and help out a friend.

3. Enlist senior-level sponsors inside and outside your direct management chain. Sometimes all it takes to influence something is having a highly influential individual give it their blessing.

IIR: Projects and politics are like oil and water; they don’t always mix. Give us a little insight on your workshop you’re facilitating at ProjectWorld about Office Politics.

Jo: In my workshop, we will talk about why you should not ignore office politics (even though most people really, really don’t like it). There are some compelling career advantages enjoyed by people who have the skill of being “positively politically savvy”, like being more promotable and less likely to derail. I will define that skill, and share some very practical tools that help participants build their political savvy, from understanding the dynamics of power and influence in their organization to understanding the unwritten ‘rules of the game.’

IIR: Women have the skill sets, integrity, character and experience to lead; what is holding some women back from breaking through the glass ceiling?

Jo: That’s a big question! And perhaps one not answerable in a short blog post, but we are lucky to live in a time when a lot of research is being done. Why aren’t women breaking into leadership in larger numbers? For one, our corporate workplaces are rife with unconscious bias that sets women at a disadvantage. And our workplaces are not always female-friendly at that critical point when employees start getting promoted into management ranks, meanwhile their home lives become very complex. Thirdly, there are some simple, practical skills that don’t always come naturally, but that women can develop in order to make their value visible for consideration for higher-level assignments.

IIR: What is the AHA moment for women after they take your training and use your leadership coaching system?

Jo: One such aha moment is not to let their management make career choices for them! That they can be the driver of their career, and take charge of their career trajectory.

IIR: What advice would you give to women who are looking to take the next step to advance in their careers? Are there networks or associations you would recommend women join to network and help gain an advantage to move forward in their careers?

Jo: I recommend not just joining the relevant associations in your professional area, but being an active participant. Take a leadership role! You will get to meet and speak with the movers and shakers in your industry, and if you play your cards right, they will become your mentors, sponsors. You will develop a world-class personal board of directors.

Want to learn more about this topic and network with PM and BA professionals like yourself? Don’t miss ProjectWorld and World Congress for Business Analysts 2014 in Seattle this fall. For more information about this event, click here: http://www.iirusa.com/projectworld/pricing-info.xml